Thursday- February 2, 2012

It has been a while sign I have posted on this blog. I have all kinds of excuses but that is all they are, excuses! We'll see if I can't do better for at least a little while.

Yesterday it was a nice day and I had some of the "pressing" business caught up. I had returned from a funeral of a good friend and I was a little down and lacking in motivation. Then I remembered I hadn't don't anything with the hooligan weanlings. I put the 7 little monsters in a 16 foot square stall and let the good times roll! They ran around in circles not wanting to be touched and I just changed their direction every little bit to keep them going. When they took a break I would stroke who ever was closest with the butt end of a lunge whip. Most of them settled down but a couple almost had a nervous breakdown.

This afternoon I went back out to give the lazy rascals a little exercise. I have learned over the years that a tired pony learns quicker and retains it longer so I sorted off four of the hooligans, making sure to at least get one of my problem children in the group,  and put them in the round pen. They seemed to think they needed to run so I motivated them to do so. Besides packing the lunge whip I also got out the flag and that sure didn't do anything to calm those youngsters stressed out nerves. When everybody was sufficiently warmed up and willing to listen to me. I separated each one off from the group and worked with it using the flag. I managed to keep them in place by using the flag to block their escape. Now these are cutting bred youngsters and have all the moves of that breeding. I can testify that they are quick and catty. I got just about as much exercise as they did but I had fun. After a little while all four of them would allow me to run the flag all over them, even over their head. By the time we were done all four were wringing wet with sweat so to give them time to cool down I went back to the 16 foot stall and worked with the three I had left there. I worked them with the flag and then started rubbing and patting them with my hand. Ima and Little Lena caught on to this idea fairly quickly and actually seemed to enjoy this. Wendy was okay with it as long as she could hide her head from me. If she could see me she would suddenly explode out of there. She is big and powerful but I think with time and repetitions she will settle down. The one who surprised me today was Big Boy. He gave to the pressure of the flag very quickly and calmed down very well. There may be hope for him yet. A few  more of these sessions and we will be ready to start the haltering process. Woo Hoo